The Telecoms Triple Play

If you remember back in your world history class to Europe's “Triple Alliance,” Germany, Italy and Austria-Hungary joined forces to create the most powerful combination of military might in the world through the start of WWI. If you hadn't noticed, another alliance of three powers is emerging recently to dominate the world of global communications.

Over the last few years, the common objectives of our three primary media of telephone, television and the internet are increasingly being combined in bundling arrangements, both from the providers' and end-users' perspectives, with significant impact to both business and residential users. Whether you’re dialing a number on keypad, pressing a channel button on a remote, or clicking a mouse, you're likely to soon be sharing the same physical cable or fiber with the same amalgam carrier.

There are a few big names duking it out in terms of dominant standards. Cisco Systems leads the charge in supporting “Multi Protocol Label Switching” platforms to allow both the new and existing services to converge and to enable a transition to an infrastructure more dependent on internet protocol, particularly in VOIP services. IBM has rolled out internet-specific management software like the Tivoli Network Manager-IP edition to monitor events, alerts and alarms across the broadened Internet-Protocol Transfer spectrum, as well as keep tabs on overall availability and reliability.

For a more in-depth look at the significance of unified communications technologies and particularly the impact on you as business or personal user, take a look at this free webcast coming out at TechRepublic next month.

Not by Abraham Lincoln: The "Ten Cannots"

Apparently these have a lot more clout if you think Abraham Lincoln came up with them. Or if you think Ronald Reagan used them in a speech in 1992. The truth is Reagan did but Lincoln didn't. They're actually by a little-known German pastor whose life overlapped with JFK's. But they certainly do sound like Lincoln.

Sometimes you can find great stuff at Wal-Mart (don't tell Paris Hilton).

The Ten Cannots
- You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift.
- You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong.
- You cannot help little men by tearing down big men.
- You cannot lift the wage earner by pulling down the wage payer.
- You cannot help the poor by destroying the rich.
- You cannot establish sound security on borrowed money.
- You cannot further the brotherhood of man by inciting class hatred.
- You cannot keep out of trouble by spending more than you earn.
- You cannot build character and courage by destroying men's initiative and independence.
- And you cannot help men permanently by doing for them what they can and should do for themselves.

William J. H. Boetcker, 1873-1962

The Pulse Event (IBM in Orlando)

Just got back from IBM's powerhouse "Pulse" event at the Swan and Dolphin in Orlando this week. If you can imagine every parking spot on the acres and acres of Disney property being filled, you get the idea. Of course, in the larger-than-life Disney/Epcot atmosphere, everything seems all the more enormous.

generationE Technologies was a major sponsor of the event this year as our focus on IBM solutions has become increasingly central to the business. Three big splashes were the service management partner award for our work creating a Google Earth-Tivoli Netcool mashup with Aircell (see their intro to wi-fi when you fly here), special recognition as the partner with the most certifications in IBM's new AAA partner ranking system, and a rollout of a collaborative wiki around the application dependency and discovery solution "TADDM," where generationE was a featured contributor.

In the photo above is generationE's Managed Services Director Gregg Spencer, who ranks as one of the people with the most diverse backgrounds I have ever met. Gregg has faced down an angry mob as a Dallas policeman, single-handedly rescued a large software-driven embroidery company, spent some time in firefighting, miraculously survived a high-speed truck crash and in his spare time takes care of all our internal technical systems. And he's an all-around great guy to work with.

Do You Want to Permanently Erase These Files?

Have you ever considered donating your old computer(s) to a school or other organization, but been reluctant because of the chance of your data still being on the hard drive somewhere? If you've been thinking about about selling, donating or otherwise getting rid of a pc, how do you make sure you've eliminated all the sensitive information (passwords, financial information, work-related documents) you've stored on your hard drive? Deleting only eliminates the file reference until the space on the drive is overwritten; hence the usefulness of programs that "undelete." Here's a free Windows utility to overwrite your data with a random pattern and make sure it's really gone before you find a new home for your pc.

Now i c stars

Today's big event in Chicago was the i.c. stars Capitalize on Illinois event. Wow - what an assembly of CIO and other executives all in one room. Founder Sandee Kastrul commands a fantastic energy level and a list of participants from companies like Siemens, Allstate, IBM, Hewitt, Motorola and a roomful of others. If you're in business in Chicago and you don't know about this yet, you need to get on board. i.c. stars is a remarkable program in Chicago that transforms aspiring young talent into IT professionals over 1000 hours of concentrated training, many times doubling and even tripling their income. See their recruiting page here and their corporate page here.

Kellogg MBA Dave Peak made a special presentation on his latest endeavor, LiquidTalk, which is a solution designed to increase productivity among mobile workers by pushing content out to their phones and PDA's while they're on the road. Particularly for companies with large sales teams, this has real potential for adding value. Here's an article about their launch with Blackberry earlier this year.

Wi-Fi When You Fly

OK - so at the moment the FAA is about as popular with the airlines industry as an American flag at a Dixie Chicks concert. But once we get past the "recent unpleasantness," there are some changes about to be rolled out that will shake things up in a good way.

Imagine this - your flight touches down, you get off the plane and walk out through the gate. You turn the corner and with a flash of your ID you pick up your made-to-order latte and sandwich. It's got your name on it and it's already paid for. You ordered it through the web site on the flight back and the barista knew when you'd be landing and when you'd be walking by. And by the way you also finished your report on the flight and ten hardcopies are at the printer kiosk as you continue toward the cab stand... where your car is waiting.

Is it reasonable to expect this anytime soon when the airlines are still sending surveys asking things like whether or not you checked luggage, whether you had a connecting flight and if it was on time? Well, the competition for your airmiles is about to get tougher as broadband rolls out to the air travel industry. See the article on Aircell here.

Free Speech in a Flat World

In the wake of international scrutiny China has lowered the firewall for its citizens to access the English version of Wikipedia - with some sensitive pages blocked. Sounds like a step in the right direction. I would expect the "olympics" page is one that may be blocked or unblocked on a daily basis.

How's freedom of speech doing in the U.S.? Are there questions you can't ask? Positions you shouldn't hold? If you look very far on the web, it would appear there aren't many things you can't say.

In American academia though, challenging Darwinian dogma is the new taboo. And Ben Stein is being decried as a "willful ignoramus" who "must have lost his mind" and now risks being Expelled on or about April 18 when his controversial movie is released.

Stein apparently implies that scientific bias can be a result of, and a justification for, a preferred worldview. Is he allowed to say that? We'll find out in a couple weeks.

Web 2.0 and Problem Resolution

If your IT department is still using a traditional knowledge base to speed problem resolution, you'll want to consider stepping up the pace by automating the process.

Wiki-based automated runbooks take advantage of collaboration and clickable fixes with advantages similar to those of Wikipedia over a hardback Brittanica. I wrote a short article describing the new breed of RBA that the good people at TechRepublic were kind enough to publish this week - you can link to it here.

Marketing China

Ten years after Bill Clinton returned from the far east to say, "China is moving to join the thriving community of free democracies," the ancient empire is surging forward from an economic standpoint, but that seems to be in increasingly starker contrast to their stubbornly repressive social policy.

Last summer, economic reports positioned China as a threat to Germany's status as the world's third largest producer after the US and Japan. Today Germany has its work cut out in quelling doubts about its economic challenger's ability to host the quickly-approaching summer games. The proponents of commercialized Leninism seem bent on the idea that they can reverse Gorbachev's strategy of politics-then-economics for a winning model of modernized communism.

On the other side of the globe, how much of a stake do we hold? 30% of China's exports currently come to the United States. For 1.3 billion Chinese, western perceptions will affect more than the disposition of the Olympics, but as Tibet is well aware, the Olympics may be anything from a harbinger to a flash-point of what is to come. With a quickly diminishing latency, the Sino-American relationship has potential to be one of the central issues driving the candidates' platforms by November.

Just Jott A Voicemail To My E-mail

When the iPhone came out, one of the spiffs Apple touted was the ability to organize your voicemails like e-mails.

But what if your voicemails came to your inbox and you could read them, hear them, forward them or archive them? That might be enough to switch to AT&T... or maybe not. Save that dilemma for another day - you can do it with Jott.

You can also transcribe a reminder to be sent to your phone or computer on a given date, or transcribe notes in the car on your phone as you're coming back from a meeting. In the messages I've sent so far the voice recognition works remarkably well, although I haven't used it long enough to be the poster child for Jott.

But maybe you will. Try it out here.

Let Us Talk of William F. Buckley

The silver cord has finally broken for a man who lived the fullest of lives. William F. Buckley, Jr. died today at 82.

On a cloudy night in 1987, as a sergeant at the end of the cold war, I was driving an eight-hour night shift with a truck full of barbed-wire through the streets of West Berlin between Andrews Compound and Doughboy Field. It was part of an exercise for logistics measurement so we never unloaded, just turned around and drove back and forth again. Fortunately the giant diesel beast had a cassette player and I brought my new copy of William F. Buckley's book "Right Reason" on tape and listened the entire time.

I missed the prematurely-abbreviated "Jaunt Around The Globe at Mach 2" on the Concorde with Buckley that year, but I did get started on his Blackford Oakes spy series with "Stained Glass" and named my first son after one of his characters. It wasn't until fifteen years later that I met Mr. Buckley in person after attending a debate at the Moody Church in Chicago and got to talk with him for a few minutes. He was obviously tired after the event and the interviews that followed and I truly appreciated his graciously taking the time.

His thoughts were always on a higher level and seemed to look beyond the superficial even making more mundane matters seem elevated. In fact, one of Buckley's greatest books is "Nearer my God" about the victories and struggles of his life of faith. You don't get any nearer than he is now.

Starbucks - The Missing Three Hours

Caribou should have seen a little spike for three hours yesterday afternoon as thousands of Starbucks customers were forced to drive down the road to order "grandes" instead of "ventis." Can you communicate the importance of "we'd rather not do business at all than not do business right" by closing your doors to your customers in order to do training?

Jon writes to explain the logic behind Starbucks' marketing decision: Howard Schultz wants everyone to know he has "retaken" the company and is behind this move. They are reigning in growth in the States in favor of more overseas expansion which could make more sense. Building more stores doesn't mean people will stop in more times in a day for coffee just because they pass five more stores on their ride home.

They grew too fast, took business away from established stores, caused managers to miss their bonuses (because of the cannibalization) and created some unhappy baristas. It looks like they are going back to their "happy place" of what makes Starbucks what it really is; a company that is 100% coffee. To wit, they just got rid of their expanded food program. Customers don't go to Starbucks for a salad and sandwich, they go there for a latte and a scone.

It's clearly a great company that had the right marketing going, but got too big and drifted away from their roots and their niche of what they do THE BEST IN THE WORLD. If they get back to what made them great, they'll be fine. An anchor on FoxNews was just ripping on customer service and how it took ten minutes to get a latte. That's not good. You pay $5 for a latte that is made fast, well and with a dash of coffee attitude. Today's closing is for that reason. Back to basics!

Thanks Jon - great lesson here for all of us.

Marketing Darwin and Ben Stein

Thirty years ago, we remembered this as Abraham Lincoln's birthday and every year we cut out silhouettes of the president who guided us through one of our nation's most troubled times. Now the 12th of February is being marketed as "Darwin Day" by several groups in the US, such as PETA.

I have a wonderful dog (boxer) and of course I view dogs as far superior to cats, but I have a tough time grasping PETA president Ingrid Newkirk's claim that "A rat is a pig is a dog is a boy." (In fact, I have to wonder if she has ever had a dog.) There are at least a few, like the author Aldous Huxley in "Ends and Means," who admit that they embrace this kind of worldview without any deeper meaning, "because it frees me to my own...pursuits."

But not former presidential speechwriter (and game show host, lawyer, professor, etc.) Ben Stein. The trailer for his new movie "Expelled" came out today, not coincidentally. An interesting new/old challenge for the 21st century's egalitarian claims in the marketplace of ideas. Every generation has its rebel - see what you think.

Video on Demand and a Worthy Competitor (Redbox)

Have an opinion on downloadable video? With the introduction of Apple's online video offering, Techdirt is running a poll for market input on how Netflix stacks up against the iPod company's foray into the growing market.

In the world of physical DVD's, the innovative folks at Redbox have offered to give you a free rental just to try them out. You can find their kiosks all over, from Walgreen's to Wal-Mart (parent company: McDonald's Ventures). As of late last year, they had over 6000 locations - more than Blockbuster - and you can return the disc at a different location than you rented it with no penalty.

Best thing about the Redbox business model - every rental is $1/night. Can't beat it - except free, which you can get by entering "dvdonme" when you check out.

Measuring Leadership

Leadership is a topic I'm fascinated by - and I am intrigued by the ways it is measured both commonly and at a higher level. I'm enjoying re-reading Maxwell's book on leadership's 21 irrefutable laws at the moment with a group of friends and would recommend his organization highly.

Different people view leadership as distinctly as any other thing in my experience. I remember sitting on a conference call where a silver-fringed senior manager bristled back at the voice on the phone with a vicious, "what do you mean exactly by servant-leadership?!" She obviously saw it differently than Tom Peters does.

My friend Eric Lannert at i.c. stars wrote recently about the difficulty in quantifying leadership in his non-profit organization. He says for-profits have it easy. Thanks a lot Eric!

The Internet Voter

In the building swirl of issues and debates, you may be wondering just which candidates you might want to vote for. Wouldn't it would be helpful to have a guide to some of the key financial, moral and foreign affairs issues (as well as noting how key they are to you) like immigration, Iraq and definition or marriage along with the relative positions of the candidates? Enter my politically savvy friend Tony who sends us this fourteen-question virtual voter quiz to a sort of online candidate dating service to help sort things out. Try it - it may not be give you the result you expect...

12 Questions with Sharon Taylor on ITIL V3

The Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL), which has become the best-practices standard in managing technology, has just come through a much-anticipated revision ("refresh") which effectively transforms it into a new kind of animal. I had the opportunity to talk with ITIL's key contributor Sharon Taylor about the impact of the new version and how it changes the best-practice landscape and the role it now plays in the business of technology. Here's a link to the interview in TechRepublic magazine. Feel free to digg, vote, forward...

Character in Advertising

A friend of mine thought this ad from Hyundai was unusual enough to point out its decidedly narrow-appeal message in a society where commitment isn't trendy. I think so too - interesting angle for a car company.

The more democratic our society, the more its success depends on our collective character. And on keeping our commitments.

Spheres of Influence

Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas holiday! As we get closer to the end of the year and looking back on what was important in 2007, it's certainly the relationships and interactions that are at the top of the list. Especially the ones where we made a difference to someone.

Spheres of influence are being highlighted by the growth in the number and varieties of online social networking mediums. The emphasis for most of these is mainly on breadth rather than depth - lots of superficiality: a mile wide and an inch deep.

Other influence is laser-focused. Take Tony Dungy's story. After his son committed suicide he said he was not going to continue with his career. A friend asked him if, knowing where his son was when he was living and where he is now, he would want to bring him back. After considering this awhile, he decided he really wouldn't do that and was able to return to football and ultimately bring the Colts to their Super Bowl win last year. I would trade that kind of positive influence in someone's life for a record-breaking Facebook network any day.

Most of the time it's more a matter of being ready for the opportunity than seeking it out. The genuineness and spontaneity are hard to fake. Here's a clip of a 13-year old whose influence would be tough to match. I hope we all see our opportunities for real influence in the new year.

Christmas Booklist

Here's a list of books that are on my Christmas wishlist - send me your own recommendations.

Anti-Christmas Entertainment

The battle lines of Merry Christmas vs. Happy Snow Season are being drawn up earlier each year. "The Golden Compass" rolls out with its story for children "about killing God" according to author Philip Pullman in a neo-Nietzsche quip.

But on the other hand there's Mitt Romney saying there's room for religion still/again in politics. And Oxford philosophy professor and distinguished atheist Antony Flew has just come out with his long move toward faith with the long title, "There is a God - How The World's Most Notorious Atheist Changed His Mind."

Abel's lamb was for a man. The passover lamb was for a family. The lamb on the temple altar was for a nation. The Lamb on the cross was for all of us. The world is flat - as of 2000 years ago.

- link to 24-hour Christmas music on your PC

Pleasure to burn...

Do people ever ask you what you think of television? Not of "24" or MTV or The Antiques Road Show, but television itself. Ray Bradbury (Fahrenheit 451, The Illustrated Man,...) said this:

The television, that insidious beast, that Medusa which freezes a billion people to stone every night, staring fixedly, that Siren which called and sang and promised so much and gave, after all, so little.

His assessment of the internet is a bit more optimistic: "Well, I hope it's an experiment that works." Here's the whole clip: Bradbury on the internet

The i.c. stars Technology "Boot Camp"

Here's a recent article from the Tribune about a technology training program in Chicago I'm proud to be a part of called i.c. stars.

Thankful

Are you thankful today? Of course you are. "If you've got three or more TV's in your house, you're richer than 95.4% of the world; if you've got two refrigerators, you're richer than... etc."

Are you humble today? (Be careful - as soon as you take any pride in it, you're not humble anymore!) I think these two are hard to separate. It's hard to be proud and thankful.

It seems to me there are three areas where we are most often thankful. There are probably more but to keep it simple let's say we're thankful for things, people and ideas.

We have a lot of great stuff that improves the quality of our daily lives, no question about it. And of course a lot of that is recent technology that makes us more fortunate than those before us. Beyond that, we know we should be thankful for our relationships. Pop stars are thankful for their fans, authors are thankful for people who buy their books, athletes are thankful for season ticket holders and bloggers are just happy for people's attention.

At another level, we are thankful for the bigger things -- the goodness in the world. Freedom, for example. The freedom to do what we should (and not necessarily what we want to) do is a true cause for thanks. Things like mercy and kindness, hope and forgiveness. To me, these are the things we need to be more thankful for. And only when we are humble enough to realize we don't deserve them can we be truly thankful for them. And that true thankfulness motivates us to give them to others.

In just a few lines I hope this is an encouragement to you. A friend of mine, Josh, expresses it better talking about his own genuine thankfulness in spite of circumstances in his iTunes download here.

Persistence

Are you persistent?

Really persistent when you believe in something?

More persistent than the other guys?

Watch the difference in the responses of these two division 3 college teams as the play gets more and more incredible.

On Giving Thanks

At the risk of recommending something that those who are inclined to appreciate already know about (because it's been out for awhile now)... I was picking some music out for Thanksgiving and came across Chip Davis' Holiday Musik from 1996. If you like this one, there's a #2 album also, but this one is the best, imho. In an era of specific, splintered, niche collections on your iPod, this is one everyone should have. Pop it in your playlist and see if it helps you to think of things you're thankful for.

And to start things off, find someone who is a veteran today and thank them for their part in our continuing freedoms in the most free nation on this earth. Lots of great people, our veterans. People who know how much something costs always appreciate it more.

Technology in Vancouver

I visited Vancouver, British Columbia for the first time last week at a conference -- what a beautiful city! Just over the border, things are familiar enough but have a European air about them. You know you're not in Iowa (no offense, I love Iowa). BC and Canada in general seem to have a larger share of long-haired men, demure women, cigarette smokers and panhandlers. Vancouver is bustling with construction projects everywhere.

And payphones. Hard to figure out why, unless they are subsidized by the government. There seems to be a Telus payphone every couple blocks while in the states the only one I can remember seeing recently is the one in the basement of the library.

Here are some photos and I recommend it as a place to visit - be sure to see Stanley Park and Granville Island, formerly an industrial park now converted to a quaint shopping area. The photo with the two gentlemen is of Doug Mueller, the father of the top-rated Remedy Service Desk and our presenter Marc Thames, who spoke to a packed out Friday morning session on the difference between asset and configuration management.

MTV Nation

Wow - a friend of mine sent me this poem recently. I don't read enough poetry, but I found this incredibly powerful. It's the long version of "no rest for the weary/wicked." One cursory note that occurs to me as I read it is how shallow and banal television has become by contrast - perpetual desperation for least-common-denominator appeal.

Unless you're in the mindset of watching "my show" at a certain time of day, TV can only become more obsolete. Some of the last hurrahs are in tivo-ing out commercials, growing screen size and quality -- 90" plasma, HD, etc., but as the web becomes more compatible with this technology and video takes an increasing foothold, more televisions will be out on the sidewalk each week.

Even with MTV...

Warning: It's not a single-read. At least it wasn't for me.

THE PULLEY.

WHEN God at first made man,
Having a glasse of blessings standing by ;
Let us (said he) poure on him all we can :
Let the worlds riches, which dispersed lie,
Contract into a span.

So strength first made a way ;
Then beautie flow’d, then wisdome, honour, pleasure :
When almost all was out, God made a stay,
Perceiving that alone, of all his treasure,
Rest in the bottome lay.

For if I should (said he)
Bestow this jewell also on my creature,
He would adore my gifts in stead of me,
And rest in Nature, not the God of Nature :
So both should losers be.

Yet let him keep the rest,
But keep them with repining restlesnesse :
Let him be rich and wearie, that at least,
If goodnesse leade him not, yet wearinesse
May tosse him to my breast.

George Herbert

Intentional Obfuscation

Marketing should be clear, focused, unobfuscated... Why would you want to confuse your audience about what you are selling?

When you want to sell on impulse and not confuse with the details.

There's a particularly ambiguous commercial that comes up and I've tried to pick out any clue of what it is about before the final seconds -- party supplies? dance lessons? a nightclub? No, it's the Illinois Lottery.

It makes me think they don't really want you to think about what it is they're selling, i.e. casinos double the rate of gambling addiction within 50 miles. For every dollar of gambling revenue the state takes in, there are 3 dollars in social costs. The top state for suicide, divorce, gambling addiction and men killing women is Nevada. (Those aren't in the commercial - btw.)

But how else can we pay to educate our children and grandchildren? It sure does look like a great party for the first 25 seconds.

A Moment of Silence

One quiet minute. Controversial? You bet.

As of today Chicago schools are mandating a moment of silence at the beginning of the school day. As in "stop talking." By a vote of 74-37, the house joined the senate in an override of the governor's veto(!) Does it seem at all ironic that this is a point of contention in government-run pedagogy?

The problem? You guessed it -- those kids might be tempted to do some praying or other contemplative activity on government time.

I'm not going to talk about "back when I was in school" because of course before the internet the world was a different place, but suffice it to say my chums and I wouldn't have thought a requirement to be quiet would ever be a shocker. The plan's opponents focus on the testy move from "you can" to "you will."

Our media culture makes a business of bandying about the offensiveness of exactly how casual we can be in speaking to both the vulgar and the divine. But the offensiveness of not speaking for a minute?

Mayor Daley came through in great form: "I believe we always have to move forward." Write it down.

Simplicissimus

I like simplicity. There's undeniable value in being overprecise and overconcise, especially in communicating something complex. Not because the people you're talking to are simple or can’t understand complex thoughts, but because there’s a true beauty in being able to communicate succinctly and well in efficient terms.

In English, the word “simple” doesn’t really lend itself to any convenient philological breakdown. In German on the other hand (where a refrigerator is a cool-cabinet and a glove is a hand-shoe), the word simple – einfach – means one thing, one subject, one stuff something is made of. When you want to keep something simple, keep it uncluttered. Find your main idea and stick to it.

When you see the single swoosh stripe on Jorge Posada’s chest and knee protectors (the only player without any other insignia showing) every time the camera zooms in at a Yankees game, you don’t have to know the Nike corporate vision or the layers in their marketing strategy. It’s just that simple statement of quiet strength and athletic style. The fact that you have so much in so little makes it all the more powerful.

As you're getting together your next presentation and see all that verbiage in your slides, think of Hamlet’s response to Polonius about "the matter that you read." "Words, words, words.” Cut out a few. Make the font readable from the back row. Speak your presentation instead of using it as a prompt. Your audience should want a copy of your notes, not your slides.

If iWoz the CEO...

So if the other Steve (Wozniak) of Apple were the CEO, he says he wouldn't have dropped the price or offered the store credit rebate on the iPhone. Of course, he bought twenty of them that he's eventually planning to give away.

Actually some people are now more upset with the recent change to their AT&T bills to "simplify" them by taking off call detail (at no extra charge)! "Press one to continue in English..."

I think the marketing team at Apple could have done better.

Pour another cup of coffee for the other impending rollout -- Halo 3 hits the shelves at midnight tonight in the US after three years since the last version. Microsoft is expecting a $150 million return on their $25-40 million investment within the first 24 hours. A million copies are pre-ordered at $60. For reference, the iPhone went to 1 million units in two months and nine days. Stay tuned...

Do Technology Jobs Require Creativity?

The shortage of talent in IT is an increasing problem, as interest in hard skills like math, science and technology courses has been waning recently. GenY'ers have a great opportunity to fill the gap and create an alternative to outsourcing our technology demand overseas.

Here's a video clip from a recent CIO conference I attended at the Chicago Cultural Center on the IT talent shortage. The brainstorming session was led by Michael Krauss of the Market Strategy Group at the i.c. stars annual "iOpener" event.

Some of the questions to the audience included the need for creativity in IT, and how technology jobs compare to a job in accounting (accounting is about what happened; IT is about what's going to happen).

Broad Shoulders and Clean Hands

Recruiters: Another reason to choose Chicago for your next job fair -- you're going to be shaking a lot of hands. On a good day you may shake hands with hundreds of people. Don't give it a second thought... as long as you're in the second city, which came in first in a new survey by Harris Interactive on personal hygiene, specifically hand-washing habits.

Timing is Everything

When it comes to marketing yourself, the timing element can't be overestimated. Getting in early and making a unique value proposition are keys to landing the interview. Guy Kawasaki has a great post on applying for a job online and how important it is to respond as quickly as possible. He's also got a new webex coming up next week in his "Art of..." series on The Art of Evangelism.

Help! My iPhone is Depreciating by the Minute

For all Steve Jobs genius in rolling out Apple's newest avatar, yesterday's discount announcement for the iPhone is his second misstep in as many months.

The first was lining the iPhone up with AT&T over Verizon and sparking a craze of hackers making headlines by "unlocking" it to work with other service providers.

Now for pricing strategy... Normally, a big price cut should put some wind in your sales as they begin to lag. But when you do it right on the heels of most of your most loyal customers jumping on your bandwagon, it could have the opposite effect. Dropping the iPhone's price by 30% yesterday looks strangely desperate. iPhoners are going to be dialing Apple off the hook with 30-day return questions.

Does Steve have an inside line on the rumors around the gPhone? If not, he's provoked enough suspicion in the minds of remaining prospective phone buyers around stability of the whole market to make them say, Whoa -- put on the brakes - I was hoping to get something for $600 that would be all-that for years, not weeks!

The Luddites are in high spirits today.

UPDATE: Steve Jobs issues an open letter and $100 credit (on another purchase) to iPhone owners today.

All In A Day's Work

If you marry the one you love, you'll never be tempted.

If you put your trust in God, you'll never doubt your faith.

If you love your job, you'll never work a day in your life.

Well, for some people maybe. For the rest of us there's this matter of discipline. Of doing things and doing them well even when we don't feel like it. Of knowing what's required in our work and then going well beyond it, consistently. And sometimes the discipline not to work.

I didn't work on Labor Day. I was unplugged out in the middle of nowhere. I hope you didn't either. Not because you don't love your job, but because you do. It's not much of a holiday if you do the same kinds of things anyway now is it?

Some people take special satisfaction in getting in an "extra" day, or hour, or e-mail. They get so accustomed to making sacrifices and even compromises, especially about work, that they don't even realize they are. They tell themselves, "I'm not really working..." Particularly when you really do enjoy your work, and you can take it all the way to the bank, it's an easy trap to fall into.

But you know when you have a baseball in one hand and a cell phone in the other. You'll love your job even more if you don't refuse to unplug from time to time, especially on Labor Day. And btw, the one you're throwing the ball with will appreciate it too.

iOpener

This past week finished off on Friday with the "iOpener" event, one of the city's biggest annual technology executive events, hosted by ic stars at the Chicago Cultural Center downtown. Among the topics at the event was the need for creativity in technology, especially its value in the new high-tech workforce.

Peter Drucker said there are only two real functions of a business; marketing and innovation. Innovation is the point where creativity stops being a clever idea and starts showing a return on investment. But creativity is where the initial value lies in a world where access to technology resources is becoming increasingly ubiquitous.

Michael Krauss, President of Market Strategy Group and member of the Mayor's Council of Technology Advisors, moderated a collaborative discussion through the audience at Friday's event to create message points on why 18-25 year olds should choose IT as a career. The results of the discussion will be published in an upcoming paper entitled, "Move the Future," in response to the continuing decline in enrollments for technology-related education and the increasing difficulty in finding people for IT positions.

The tools to make the next facebook or a photobucket or a digg are out there for anyone with a laptop, and the value of creativity to see them in a new way is the new trump card. As an executive at Apple said a couple years ago (pre-iPod), "We want to be the ones who come up with new ideas -- not the ones who snap the pieces together..."

Bill Gates Meets Napoleon

Some people hate Microsoft. Some people hate Bill Gates. Some people hate the movie "Napoleon Dynamite." If you're in one or more of those groups, don't watch this video. You'll hate it.

Otherwise, you might think it's pretty funny... maybe even download it to your iPhone.

Marketing Yourself

A friend asked me to review a resume recently and it struck me how much time is sometimes spent on format for a generic resume vs. content for a custom resume. Format is great -- it's good to show attention to detail and the ability to present well.

But for every job you're really serious about, your resume should be different, not changing any of the core components, but emphasizing the strengths that are appropriate to the position. Depending on your versatility and how far along in your career you are, no two of your resumes should be the same and some could look very different. It takes some work to find out just what the job entails and why you are the best qualified candidate -- which is what both sides want to know, right?

An e-mail blast of the same resume to ten or twenty or fifty companies is likely to get a response that is just as generic (if not moreso).

The End of Airline E-mail Blackout

An update on in-flight broadband -- American Airlines just announced they will team up with service provider Aircell to offer the internet on domestic flights early next year, picking up where Boeing left off, using cell towers rather than satellites. Blessing or curse, you'll be able to keep up on e-mail and access the web, rather than just updating spreadsheets and powerpoints.

100 Degrees of Confidence In The Shade

We all like type A's on our side. Someone who carries our own opinions with a little extra swagger. Someone who can propose a strategy, or suggest a solution or give advice with blazing bravado.

Especially once they develop a loyal following.

And are paid well to do it.

Would you prefer a champion like Wharton professor Scott Armstrong who's willing to put up, say $20,000 to demonstrate his certainty about global warming -- or one who declines the challenge -- especially if that amounts to about 10-15 minutes of his normal speaking fees?

Bottom line: pick good champions.

ASiQ Inflight - Just in Time for the iPhone

If you've been wondering what the holdup is in getting inflight internet access, here's an update in anticipation of ASiQ's low-cost solution within the next couple months.
Just in time for you to try it out on your new iPhone, depending on where you stand in Rogers' diffusion of innovations -- and your current contract with Verizon (whose service wins hands-down over AT&T but where Steve Jobs couldn't agree on the terms of the deal).

Two Ways Of Looking At It

I remember when Katherine Hepburn died a couple years ago, the quote she left the world with was that she was "looking forward to oblivion." For anyone with this kind of aspiration, it's got to affect the way you live as well as the way you die.

Ruth Graham died earlier this month after a life of some celebrity and personal accomplishment as well. She was described as a spiritual giant by her best friend and husband of almost 64 years, Billy.

Like Kate, Ruth also wrote of her passing: "And when I die, I hope my soul ascends slowly, so that I may watch the earth receding out of sight, its vastness growing smaller as I rise, savoring its recession with delight."

I'm sure it did, so that she could. What a great way of looking at it.

The British Talent Invasion - This Time In Opera

On the few occasions when I've watched these shows, I've been disappointed with the waste of time. This is a remarkable piece from "Britain's Got Talent" (a stateside version of American Idol) about real talent apart from showmanship and pop-culture sellability.



Part of the win is obviously in the surprise element from Paul, the cell phone salesman from South Wales. Something to keep in mind when you're making your marketing pitch (and we're all marketing something...).

Tearing Down Walls - Twenty Years Later

It was twenty years ago today - June 12, 1987, that Ronald Reagan made the speech that became the tipping point for the direction of the western world -- JFK's "world of freedom" -- in the end of the twentieth century.

It was my privilege to stand there in Berlin that day and hear President Reagan, at that time my Commander-In-Chief, make his stunning delivery in front of the quadriga of the Brandenburg Gate.


He didn't have to say it. It was a great speech without it and in fact, his advisors all told him to leave it out. Twenty years later I can still tell you firsthand the cold war was very real.

But making the challenge based on his conviction that it was the right thing to do changed the world. "General Secretary Gorbachev, if you seek peace, if you seek prosperity for the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, if you seek liberalization: Come here to this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!"

Freedom has a cost and we stand on the shoulders of great men.

The Business End of Technology

Here's an article I contributed to recently by John Hazard of eWeek on business service management and the best practice meme ITIL. -- Notable prediction by Forrester for 23% growth in the BSM market this year!

Spinning the Big Donor

Reality TV is a little different in the Netherlands. While our shows have become more bizarre and more-luck-than-talent based, the "Big Donor Show" can win savvy contestants a kidney through persuasive appeals to its donor.

Even the Dutch aren't entirely happy with it, admitting it is "controversial." The wishes of the organ's donor override the order on the current four-year waiting list while the donor is alive. But the education minister says his hands are tied as freedom of speech keeps him from "interfering in the content of programs." ...Every education minister's conundrum.

In Memoriam

The click-rates are high on articles about the rising number of casualties lost in Iraq or a mother camped on the lawn outside the president's house because her son was killed.

When you think of the government in the 21st century, you may think of the postal system, government schools or social security. The framers of the constitution had a primary emphasis on one purpose and it wasn't the redistribution of wealth. The central government provides for the common defense.

They knew there was a cost to freedom. And there still is. Happy Memorial Day, particularly to you veterans. Eyes right.

A Big Little Book from Seth Godin

Do you remember Big Little books when you were a kid? I must have had twenty or thirty of them (Gentle Ben, Johnny Quest,...) and dog-eared the pages on every one. There's something handy about a pocket-sized version of a good book.

Seth Godin's new book, The Dip is "a little book that teaches you when to quit (and when to stick)," although it would require a hip-hop size pocket in your britches.

The house was packed this morning for Seth's Chicago installment of the book tour at Maggiano's. The point of Seth's presentation, although he says it's not meant to be motivational, is to encourage you that the "dips" you find yourself in from time to time may be cul-de-sacs where you need to recognize a lack of potential, but more often are setbacks that real visionary success doesn't often come without.

For example, Seth predicts the Zune's failure for not doing what something with real vision, something that's worth the investment of sticking through the dips, does - being the best in the world. It's objective is to be an iPod challenger, but not to be the best. Microsoft is destined for a cul-de-sac on this one, even with the new Halo-3 version.

So pick something you can be the best in the world at and stick to it and work through the dips. Good advice from someone who's the best in the world at writing powerful big-little books on marketing!

Wii Would Like To Be The Next iPod

The Wii is an innovative twist on videogaming -- no question about it. I had a chance to try it out recently with some friends and it is immediately obvious that in the words of another marketing pitch, "this changes everything." The next thing begging to be built into the package is foot controllers, which will make things even more interesting as the most popular video game of all time is FIFA Soccer.

But as great a product as the Wii is (too great in fact; Nintendo is now doing their best to "fix this abnormal lack of stock") their punchy marketing story certainly played a big part in its success. This is a great ad. Even after seeing it a few times, it's still fun to watch. It's got different levels of humor -- the smartcar, the stereotyped characters, the men on mission, and a bringing-the-world-together message. It's all about you. No wonder.